So she dances
by Niamh929
Summary: When he isn’t around to dazzle her out of her senses Bella finds that she has a new talent … [One Shot] BxE


When he isn't around to dazzle her out of her senses Bella finds that she has a new talent … [One Shot

It was late. Charlie had been called into the police station earlier that night to calm down a few rowdy drunks that had been pulled in by his deputies. I had the house all to myself. I missed Edward's cool touch on my back as I slept. He had to hunt, so I was up watching late night television infomercials. He would be back in the morning but I missed him and the piece of my soul that he took with him each time he left.

Around 2 a.m., I decided it was time to try to sleep again. Back in my bed, I tossed and turned in the humid July air. The bed sheets were mangled and bunched in a sweaty heap at the end of my mattress before I got up again and headed for the kitchen. I needed some water, preferably freezing cold.

The ice cubes clinked in one of Charlie's faded pint glasses. The house was silent and moonlight streamed in all the windows thrown open in the hopes of catching an elusive breeze. The air did not move.

My wedding was just weeks away now. My life would begin then. Begin and end with my love, my Edward. A waltz hummed in my head. _Damn_. I would have to get up in front of my family and Edward's and dance. No one else would be there to block the view of the introduction of my face to the dance floor.

_I could ask Edward to teach me_. Alice hadn't given me all the details of the wedding she had planned but I know Edward would want a first dance.

At the window, my hand fluttered up to my brow. I pushed away my hair which had fallen down from the messy bun pilled high on my head. The moonlight lit the ground around Charlie's house. _How beautiful a night wedding would be,_ I thought. All I could do was smile and beginning humming again.

I put my glass down on an end table as a fresh breeze blew the air around the living room. The moonlight felt as clean and refreshing as the sun in Phoenix. Before I really knew it, I was swaying back and forth. I brought my shoulders up square and placed my arms in front of me, my right on imaginary-Edward's shoulder and my left circled around to touch imaginary-Edward's back.

The sweet melody of a waltz played through my head as imaginary-Edward pressed my head to his chest. His arms pulled me around in tempo to the song. I imagined myself in a white silk dress and imaginary-Edward in a stunning deep grey tuxedo. My dreamed-up skirts ruffled with imaginary-Edward's movements. I felt my feet floating over Charlie's worn living room throw rugs and I swayed, smiling, thinking about the possibilities of my wedding day with my real life angel, Edward.

My heart beat in tempo with my imagined dance partner. His hands moved from the place had been to encircle me tighter against his chest. And my arms instinctively shifted to circle behind him, holding his marble chest as close as I could manage. His hands stroked my hair and he whispered "I love you. You have made me the happiest man," I imaged he would sigh, spinning me in three-three time.

Suddenly, imaginary-Edward vanished to be replaced by the loud tolling of Charlie's cookoo bird clock on the mantel. _Three a.m._, I sighed mentally. I waited for the vanished-Edward to bow to me before I curtseyed. _If only our first dance could be this perfect._ I sniffed realizing that a single tear had slipped down my face.

An almost inaudible gasp from the farthest window of the living room made me spin around. Perched on the window ledge, Edward had his back pressed firmly against the side and one leg crooked against the opposite side. If he could cry, I knew the face he wore right now would be the one I would see.

"I … I…" he stammered pulling the rest of his body into Charlie's living room. "You are so beautiful." His hands pulled the hair away from my eyes. He cupped my jaw firmly with both marble palms.

"I am sorry," he said, embarrassed. "I could not stop watching you. I guess you are not always the klutz you pretend to be."

I snickered but stopped when I saw that heart breaking look on his face again. "Edward, are you ok?"

"What were you thinking about?" he answered me with a question. He pulled me onto the floor and leaned against the couch.

I shock my head. I couldn't tell him how silly I had been.

"Please tell me," he said in a richly velvet voice, scooping me up in his arms. Since I met him, I came to expect that he would sweep me off my feet in a heartbeat.

"Why did you look like you wanted to cry? Am I that bad?"

"Oh my Bella. Bella, Bella, Bella. You dance like an angel in the moonlight." I froze in his arms. _How much had he seen?_

"You watched me dance? The whole thing?" I was so embarrassed.

"The whole thing. I started to come in the window when you put your glass down on the table. You stretched your arms out like you had a dance partner with you. Who were you dancing with?"

"You, of course," I answered.

"It could have been anyone," he smirked at me now. "I was hoping it was me though. You sparkled … then."

I looked down at my arms looking for the tell tale signs of the diamonds I saw on Edward's skin when he went into the sun. "No," he said pulling my chin up, my eyes locking on his. "Your eyes. In the moonlight, when you danced, your eyes sparkled."

I was so mortified. Edward had caught me in full swoon, thinking absentmindedly about how much I loved him. I was living a fantasy in a time I thought I was alone.

"Bella," his voice melted. "Bella, tell me. Tell me why you were dancing."

I pressed my face into his chest, just like I had in my dream, dancing with him across a ballroom floor. I mumbled my answer indistinctly into his chest.

"You what?" he asked me, his face looked surprised.

"I was imagining that I was dancing with you at our wedding. Oh, Edward, please don't laugh," I plead with him. His melodic laughter rang around the house.

"Oh, Bella," he sighed, kissing my forehead. "If you only knew…"

"Tell me."

"Watching you from the window, I wanted to slip into your arms and dance with you. I … well … Alice caught me doing the same thing the other day. Dancing with no one but a dream of you. When I saw you dancing, it reminded me how much I longed to be there in your arms and dance with you. Not just at our wedding but every day for the rest of eternity."

His voice faltered and he turned his head into my hair, hiding his face as I had hid mine in his chest. I pulled away from him and push him to the floor. If he had not wanted to move, he wouldn't have. But his body swooshed with a fluid motion and I sat on him. "Edward Cullen," I said in my most stern voice, "the rest of eternity is a long time …"

His face fell slightly. "…do you know how many pairs of shoes we will have to buy?"

A smile danced from his lips to his eyes. He pulled me down to him. "I love you, Bella."

I kissed his collar bone and slowly drew a line with my lips up the side of his neck to his lips where I gingerly pecked him again. "Why did you come home from hunting so early?" I asked him.

"I missed you," he answered audibly sighing, content. "I didn't want you to wake up without me by your side." I curled against him.

I feel asleep atop his cool body in the living room. The heat of the night had left the house and I was able to relax. Whole, finally, with my Edward.


End file.
